I would like to introduce the activities of hemp merchants in the Edo Period who linked the hemp fields of Tochigi Prefecture, located far from the ocean, and the seas off Kujukuri Beach. Hemp merchants sold Tochigi Prefecture’s yashuu-asa (yashuu-hemp) to the fishing boat owners of Kujukuri Beach, who required vast amounts of hemp for fishing nets. On their return trip, the merchants brought back sardines that had been hung and dried in order to use as fertilizer. The shrewd assessment of a situation in which boat owners wished to sell large amounts of dried sardines, and the Kanuma region’s hemp farmers’ need for dried sardines as fertilizer, is believed to have led to production which benefited both groups.